Former foreign affairs minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated categorically on Sunday that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was divided in two groups, with one intoxicated with power and busy robbing the country with no regard for the people’s problems, and the other made up of sincere workers and office-bearers deprived of their rights. Qureshi told a large public meeting in Pak Colony Grounds here that the country had gone bankrupt as political leaders were using government resources to hold their public meetings, and said that these resources should be used to provide employment to the country’s youth instead.
He said that fortunately farmers had acquired reasonable prices of their agricultural produce lately, but the prime minister had now imposed a 17 percent general sales tax and agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, petroleum products and tractors had increased in price and gone beyond the reach of farmers. He demanded that the prime minister immediately withdraw the tax because if the farmers were economically strong, then the country would also be strengthened.
He said problems such as load shedding, gas shortage, inflation and unemployment had been caused by the previous government. He said that there were reservations among workers and office-bearers of the PPP with the party’s impending alliance with the PML-Q. He supported the blockage of NATO supply lines by a protest sit-in organised by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf.